Mick's stupid question of the week...neck and bridge pickups

[elmicko]

On a guitar like a strat or les paul where all the pickups are the same basic size, what would be the downside (or upside for that matter) of using a bridge pickup in the neck position (or vice versa)?

[Teleterr]

I tried a SH-14 as neck and it was just to dark. The same w other bridge HBs. Strat bridges on the other hand work great, deeper tone without mud.N and B s seem interchangable, but middles if its a voiced -for- each- position set need to stay there. Since the M is so squirrelly sounding, its harmonics don't match up w the N and B which are 2 octaves apart and share a big overlap.

[Rockdog]

Usually, the neck pickup is wound to accentuate highs since it's getting enough natural lows from its position closer to the neck. Conversely, the bridge pickup is usually wound to accentuate lows since it's getting enough natural highs from its closer position to the bridge.

If you reverse them, you could end up with an unpleasantly bright bridge sound (a.k.a. icepick) and a very muddy neck sound.

It can be fun to experiment, though. My favorite partscaster contains a Seth Lover bridge pickup in the neck (there's a Jerry Donahue in the bridge, FWIW). It can get muddy if the volume and/or gain are too high, but I usually blend it with the JD for in-between sounds.

[Telenator]

If we're talking vintage guitars, there isn't much of a difference, if at all.

Sometimes, the brackets or frames that a humbucker is built on will have longer legs on it for the bridge position, and shorter legs for the neck spot.

As far as I know, (and that's not too far), the major guitar manufacturers did not start make hotter pickups for the bridge position until the 80's. This was done so the volume level between the neck and bridge pickup would be the same, and in an effort to add a little more fullness to the bridge pickup sound.

So, swapping the pickups in a modern day guitar might have you putting the stronger pickup in the neck position and the weaker one on the bridge spot. That would be opposite of what was intended in the first place.

[bcarter_1]

I think the resistance values are different.
I am interested to hear why myself.

[uriah1]

You still have to know the ohm of the p.u

Example (CS69 strat pickups, are all same)
basically.

I guess, what are you trying to achieve... diff tone? loudness?

YOu can always have 1 pickup kissing the guitar and the other
pickup kissing the strings.etc

[Teleterr]

A modern Neck of a voiced- for- position set is basically = to a vintage style p/up so if you find that too trebley you will w a N for B as well.I've never had a B sound muddy as a N, just deeper.If you have a HB route a Tele Bridge fits without mod and it can be hard screwed w springs or tubing into the wood.Killer sound .My hardtail 2 HB route Strat has a tapped 5.7, full 6.4 Tele B as the neck and a '69CS Strat as the bridge.

[elmicko]

I really wasn't planning anything, it's just one of those random things that pops in my head occasionally. Actually, I'm contemplating my next project and when I was searching for humbuckers and strat pickups I kept running across the ones I wanted were all bridge position. Then the randomness began...